The constitutional core of the Union: On the CJEU’s new, principled constitutionalism

For a decade now, the CJEU has been complementing and indeed overwriting its long-standing functionalist approach to constitutionalism. Anew, a principled constitutionalism is emerging that draws from the first 19 articles of the EU Treaties and activates the potential of its constitutional core. Some consider this path a problematic example of judicial self-empowerment. By contrast, the article demonstrates that the CJEU’s new constitutionalism operationalizes two understudied choices of the LisbonTreaty. The authors of theTreaties gave Articles 1 to 19TEU a foundational role as the basic part of theTreaties, and toArticles 1, 2 and 3(1)TEU even that of a constitutional core. These choices suggest, indeed require, a principled interpretation to implement the new order of the Treaties and call for an engaged and proactive legal community to safeguard and develop the Union’s constitutional identity.